Finnish minister demands guarantees over bailouts
FINLAND’s new finance minister said yesterday that the Nordic country will demand guarantees if it participates in any new euro area bailouts and that it wants private investors to bear more of the burden.
“We want to limit Finland’s responsibilities. The new government has taken a tougher stance than the previous government regarding crisis countries’ aid packages,” Jutta Urpilainen said in a television interview with public broadcaster YLE.
She said the guarantees could be in the form of shares in a company managing the debt-laden state’s property.
Urpilainen said Finland’s demands had not drawn wide support in other euro area countries, but she said Finns had voted for a tougher stance on aid to crisis countries in the April general elections. The Finnish parliament retains the right to approve funds for aid packages.